IMPORTANT UPDATE ON EDITING OF FORTUNATE RELAPSE 9/19/09: I have finally gotten somewhere with my editing and am now doing much better revising the stupid plothole I dug for myself. While by no means does this mean the story will be reposted in the next couple weeks, it does mean I'm chugging along at a steady pace now, instead of spurts and stops as before. Actually, the story has been somewhat expanded. Fixing my plot hole required backing up a few days from where I started the original version. It will no longer start in the middle of the action, but rather open with a conversation between Katsura and Kenshin. grins I'm really excited. I'm getting measurable progress done now and I can't seem to stop bouncing with excitment. So I decided to share the feeling with my readers! If any of you are still coming to this profile for updates, anyway...

But! I'm excited. (Have I said that often enough? I think so. I'll stop now.) I'll post any more pertinant updates here as I go.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL FORTUNATE RELAPSE READERS: I'm truly sorry to do this to you all, but I've decided to take down Fortunate Relapse while I do some serious editing on it. I posted it a bit too soon (read: didn't do enough research on Meiji era medicine) and dug myself into a plot hole I'm not gonna dig myself out of in a plausible manner. I will not write a story like that, so...I need to edit it. Badly. The plot is going to have to be tweaked and several other small things need to be fixed. I don't know if any of you have read all of my profile, but I metioned how much of a nut I am about my writing (with every aspect basically), and the gaping plot hole I left has finally gotten the better of my optimistic view that I can salvage what I have so far. I'll repost the story after it's been edited and completely finished, under the same name. So don't worry about FR disappearing forever. It'll come back. Just...not any time soon. I hope to see all of you back when I repost the story. But until then, thanks so much for reviewing/favoriting/alerting my story. I especially want to thank those readers who took the time to give me constructive criticism, because that's the only way I'll become a better writer. All of you are amazing.

Hey, stingrae here.

I've been reading fanfiction here for a long time and I just now signed up for an account. Wonder what took so long...oh right, that thing called procrastination!

I know a lot of people here post a lot of personal information on their bio pages. Real name, country/city of origin/residence, age, gender...etc etc.

I'm not one of those people.

Live with it.

I have a lot of interests in what I read and consequently my writing will reflect that. I'm on a bit of a Rurouni Kenshin kick now so that's what I'll be posting for now.

I've personally had issues with authors who start to post something and then never finish it or suddenly discontinue the story with no warning. I will not be one of those authors. I will do my best to finish or nearly finish any story I intend to post before doing so and I will not abandon any story I write. Understand this may mean some stories may taper off and not end in as strong a writing style as they started, but as I am a bit of a nut when it comes to my own writing, I will try to avoid this at all costs. Reviews in a positive and constructive criticism light always help, of course!

Flames will be laughed at and then deleted and ignored. So don't bother.

If you've actually read all of this, then I applaud you and give you a cyber cookie.

hands over cookie

grin Bye!

June 2: I've decided to post the rest of my story. I really appreciate all of the reviews I've gotten so far. I will reply to your reviews. It will just take time, so be patient. Any and all constructive criticism is welcomed. Please keep reviewing, it makes my day!

June 9: Hey guys, I'm going to have to ask all of you to be patient and wait for the next chapter a bit longer. I work two jobs and my schedules coincided so that I go from my full-time job to my part-time with hardly a break in between. Seriously, I'm going to be eating my supper in my car while I drive to my other job! So, unfortuneatly, that means I won't have much energy for editing my chapters. I have the next one nearly done, but I want to edit it some more so that it is more up to a par with what I want my writing to be, i.e. professional and believable. I can promise to have the chapter up by next week, but no promises on an exact day.

One more note: guys I've had over three hundred hits for my story, and only 13 reviews! There is a serious gap here. I realize some of those hits have to be people who don't have an account and can't leave reviews for the story, but I would appreciate it if those of you who are able to leave reviews would take the time to do so. It's a little discouraging to see that so many people have at least glanced at the story, and not bothered to tell me what they liked or didn't like about it. I know you guys are out there! It doesn't take long to leave a review and I would really appreciate even a "good job" or something like that; just enough to let me know that people actually have read the story instead of just glancing at it, going "that's stupid" and hitting the back button.

For those of you that have reviewed, you all are the GREATEST!! I've loved every single one of your reviews. Especially the ones that gave me constructive feedback.

June 15: Hello again! It seems I was a little optimistic in my update schedule. I will have it posted by Wednesday, but my jobs took a lot out of my creative thinking processes. I blame my work!

Crickets

Hello? Okay, so that was lame. But cheer up! I have only the one job to contend with for the majority of this week (and then back to supper in the car...shoot me now?) so the chapter will be up soon. While I'm still elated at having only the full-time job to work with.

And if anyone knows of a good way to put up a soundproof wall between two of your coworkers, one that will follow them around all day, do please let me know. I felt very much as if I were baby-sitting my coworkers today. All they did was bicker with each other. Maybe soundproof boxes would be a better idea...

August 20: Okay, the chapter is planned in my head and I just need to translate it to the page. The only problem is that Hiko is being his usual annoying self, and refusing to cooperate with me. And somehow Hiko's attitude has merged with Saitou's and I'm still trying to separate them back out...

I'm just about ready to take a leaf out of Takagi's book and go find a handy tree branch. There are plenty in my front yard. That and I'm still trying to figure out how I got Saitou mixed in with Hiko...

November 21, 2008: Look for an update on FR within the next four days to a week. I can definitely promise the chapter will be up before December rolls around.

April 20, 2009: Three words: Writer's. Block. SUCKS!! I'm trying, really I am, to get the next chapter of Fortunate Relapse out. But I'm running into a wall and I don't quite know how to get over it. Or around it, or through it. I've tried every remedy for writer's block that I know. I don't even know why I have writer's block. I just woke up and couldn't get anywhere with the chapter. I won't abandon this story, not by any means. I keep trying to write the chapter periodically, but you guys might be waiting a while for it. (And if any of you have come here looking for an update, you'll have noticed I've branched out into AtLA. It's all I've been able to write for about three months. And it's fun, really, I like the cartoon. But I wanna go back to my Rurouni Kenshin stories...wahhh...)

I would like to thank all those people who have put my story on their alert/favorite list. You all are amazing! I never expected this story to get so popular. I will carry on! For my readers I will defeat this cursed writer's block!!